Style Guide

Introduction

The Office of Marketing Communications has developed this style guide to aid Emmanuel College in adapting a consistent grammatical style. It is intended for use by writers of Emmanuel College documents and publications, not for use by students for academic papers.

The following is a list of frequently occurring style issues and the preferences to which Emmanuel will adhere, based on the Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual and Emmanuel College preferences. Please contact the Office of Marketing Communications if you have any questions while using this style guide.

Offices

Punctuation + Grammar

Title Capitalization

We follow the AP Style Guide's rules for title capitalization: Capitalize the first word of any title. Capitalize all words that are four letters or longer. Do not capitalize the articles "a," "an" and "the." Do not capitalize conjunctions or prepositions, unless they are four letters or longer.

Examples: The Elements of Style; Opening Doors Through Internships at Emmanuel ("through is a preposition, but it is capitalized because of the four-letter rule)

Ampersand

The Ampersand should not be used in place of and, except if it is an official title of a company, product or proper noun.

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Bulleted lists

A bulleted list does not contain punctuation of any kind, unless an item in the list is a complete sentence.

Example 1

Example 2

OR

This is Example 1.

This is Example 2.

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Comma

A comma is used to separate items in a series, but should not be placed before the conjunction.

The Muddy River Café serves drinks, salads and sandwiches.

A comma may be omitted following an introductory clause in a sentence, but should be included for clarity when necessary.

In the fall of 2001 Emmanuel admitted its first coeducational undergraduate class. When the Saints basketball team reached the NCAA Final Four, a rally was organized.

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Dates

An academic year should be written as 2004-2005, for example. The plural of a year is formed without an apostrophe. When referring to a decade ('90s, '80s), no apostrophe is used.

"America Since the 1960s" is a popular history course among students.

When referring to a month and a year only, do not use commas.

The Jean Yawkey Center opened in September 2004.

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Hyphen

A hyphen is used between two words only to create an adjective.

He has a full-time job. She lives off campus. He lives on-campus housing. She works full time.

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Numbers

Numbers less than 10 should be written out. Numerals may be used for figures 10 and greater. Hyphens are used to separate telephone numbers. No parentheses are needed around the area code, since it is now required for dialing.

Emmanuel College has four on-campus residence halls. A group of 10 students attended the meeting. Print (no hyphen between area code and phone number): Contact the Admissions Office at 617 735-9715 to schedule a tour.Web (hyphen between area code and phone number): Contact the Admissions Office at 617-735-9715 to schedule a tour.

Any number that begins a sentence should be expressed in words.

Twelve participants answered the question.

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Time

References to times should be consistent with the AP Stylebook. Figures should be used, except for noon and midnight. Abbreviations of a.m. and p.m. should be lowercase and separated by periods.

Commencement will begin at 11:00 a.m. A reception will be held at 3:30 p.m.

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Verbs

Avoid split forms of verbs. In some cases, the AP Stylebook acknowledges that a split may be necessary and is not awkward. They refer to the following examples:

Preferred: She was ordered to leave immediately on assignment. An acceptable split: The budget was tentatively approved.

Web Terms

Web Addresses/URLs

Web addresses, or URLs, are frequently used in text which the reader may refer to for more information. Our preferences seek to eliminate any confusion between the writer and the reader.

In print, it is not necessary to include the http:// at the beginning of the web address, unless it begins with something other than the universally recognized www. For example:

The Emmanuel College website, www.emmanuel.edu, was launched with a new design.

Online, web addresses should be turned into descriptive links. Instead of directing someone to http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp for their FAFSA pin number, direct them to the FAFSA PIN website.

If a web address does not fit on one line, and it is not possible to move the web address to a new line, it is acceptable to break the address before a period or after a forward slash. Do not add punctuation or a hyphen to the address, except for necessary punctuation at the end of the sentence.

In print, web addresses for the Emmanuel website should be kept to text-based directions whenever possible. For example:

For more information about a PLUS loan, call the Office of Student Financial Services or visit our website: www.emmanuel.edu and click on "Admissions + Aid."

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Additional Terms

The term website is one word. The terms web page and home page are two words. Web should be capitalized when referring to the World Wide Web, but lowercase when used as an adjective.